VADER: drone-based system automatically spots and tracks people from 25,000 feet

The Army is looking to award another three-year contract to keep the Vehicle and Dismount Exploitation Radar (VADER) system, first tested in 2009, up and running.

VADER is capable of tracking individuals from 25,000 feet automatically and is just one of many quite incredible drone sensor systems like ARGUS, capable of capturing 36 square miles in a single image, or drone-based facial recognition and biometrics systems.

Indeed, drone technology is rapidly advancing with everything from ground-based lasers enabling perpetual flight to solar-powered drones to silent drones to drone-launched EMP missiles to fully automated weapons systems (which some groups are already speaking out against) to tiny laser-guided bombs for small drones and more.

While some might think these developments are not concerning since they are supposedly to be used in a warzone environment, such claims are nonsensical since the military is using drones in the United States already, as you will see in the below video: